Book Review: Complete/Convenient, by Ketan Bhagat

About the author:
Ketan Bhagat is an Indian author. He’s a creative person at heart and has done stints in television and print fields during his college days. This book is his debut novel.

Impressions from the cover:
Puts across the point the author is trying to make quite easily, with the Indian part shown near “Complete” and the Sydney part shown near “Convenient”. A lovely cover design, but the tagline wasn’t necessary.

Impressions from the blurb:
A narration of the thoughts of an NRI, newly married and arrived in Sydney. The story might invoke feelings of homesickness and love toward family etc.

My review:
Home is where the heart is. Yeah, the line’s a told and retold one, but I know it’s true. I haven’t gone far away from home, but I know people who have, and who have returned back as well. That’s the story of Kabir, the once reckless, carefree bachelor who finds out he’s been offered a posting in Sydney and goes over-the-moon on hearing it. Following that is a very short period in India, and for his single status, as his parents are convinced of his relationship with his girlfriend, he gets engaged and married quickly and reaches Sydney with his wife Myra. We’re taken on a tour of the city through the eyes of the couple, shown both the good things and the bad, love and confusion, an appeal for luxury and then the comforts of that unknown city. As expected, with the protagonist loving Sydney, we also see a lot of comparisons and such as to why Sydney life is better than Indian life. Our hardworking protagonist does what he needs to get his company from a little-known status to a well-known one, even if it meant missing out on important functions and getting his wife angry at him. With time he begins to realize where he belongs, and a sequence of events makes him decide to return.

This is a book you know the ending before you even read the preface. The cover just puts it there for you. Unless you are one who is hungry for money and wanting to get away from family maybe. What I liked in the story is the central idea, the one that wants to show the importance of family. There are some nice nuggets of wisdom thrown into the narration as well. The language is simple and to the point. There is light humor as well. It also showed the emotional side of a guy (but I still maintain that the tagline on the cover isn’t needed). To be honest, the first half of the book goes very tediously and I was tempted to put the book down after a hundred pages or so. Then it gets better and little quicker during the middle, and then super rushed toward the end with one thing on top of another leading to a dilemma and a solution almost instantaneously. Some details thrown in just at the end feel unwanted, feel the situation is overcooked before thrown out of the pan. Editing could have been better in a few places as well.

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Hi there! I'm Vinay Leo R. I'm a bookworm, and as the tagline says, I'm trying to read the world one book at a time!

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As of January 2016, the rating system at A Bookworm's Musing allots a score out of 10. For star ratings, the score is halved. If I feel the book has potential, a half-rating like 2.5 or 3.5 etc is rounded to the higher side like 3 or 4 stars. else it is kept to the lower side, like 2 or 3 stars.